So it’s been a busy, booming, DRY (God we need rain) and hot summer in Austin. Here are some of the photos I’ve taken this year from March through the first weekend in August.

March

85th annual Zilker Kite Festival

It was crowded.

April

Jury Duty

I got called for Jury Duty. My judge and his courtroom were on the 5th floor of the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center.

When you first get there, you have to go through an airport-style security screening. They never questioned my camera. Floors 3-9 have a lobby for the general public that runs the length of the building and the windows face the south. I think there are only two courtrooms on each floor - one on the west side of the elevator bank and the other on the east side of the elevator bank. Attorneys, witnesses, spectators and potential jurors enter the courtroom from this lobby.

These are a couple of the views from that lobby.

I was actually chosen to be a juror and had access to other parts of the floor that were off-limits to the general public. When we came back from lunch, we used a special hallway (you have to be buzzed in) that runs the width of the building and leads to the jury deliberation room and the rear entrance to the courtroom. The hallway for my courtroom faced west and the hallway for the other courtroom faced east. These are some views from the west hallway:

The next two views are of the old Texas Military Institute Castle. (TMI Castle) The foundations below it are the site of a failed condo project. The graffiti is actually part of the Baylor Art Wall.

At the end of that hallway, you turn to the right and enter another hallway. On the left side of that hallway was the jury deliberation room with windows that faced north and on the right side of the hallway was the back entrance into the courtroom that the jurors used. (There were no windows in the actual courtroom.}

These are some views from the jury deliberation room:

(Our case was a DWI. - we found him guilty)

Walking

April was so nice and cool. I did a lot of walking. Here are some photos from the Lady Bird Lake Hike & Bike Trail.

A “before & after” comparison:

Skyline from Lou Neff Point – April 2008

Same vantage point from April 2013

May

More walking

The first weekend in May was wonderful. It got down into the 40’s two nights in a row. Austin set an all time monthly low record for the month of May. Oh, how I am missing that weather right now. More walking and photos.

View from the Hyatt Regency. The building under construction is the JW Marriott Hotel which will be Austin's largest when it opens in March 2015.

Skyline from Butler Park:

Skyline from Palmer Events Center:

Skyline from Long Center:

The Crescent from the Embassy Suites garage. This is one of my favorite mixed-use projects in Austin.

Riverview Apartments from the Congress Avenue Bridge

Observation Hill at Butler Park:

Skyline from Butler Park:

Pecan Street Festival

Even the dogs in Austin try to be hip. These two were on Sixth Street during the Pecan Street Festival. Written on a chalkboard at a nearby bar was: “Dogs Welcome! All children must be on a leash.”

Random photos

Zach Topfer Theater

Zach Topfer Theater just before sunrise

Sunrise

Sunset

June & July

It’s been too hot and humid to get out and go walking, but here’s a few I managed to take.

August

I went to a birthday party in Pflugerville, and since Capital Metro doesn't go there, I rented a car and decided to keep it the whole weekend so I could drive around (in air conditioned comfort) and take some photos.

I wish the first one had come out better, but I was driving and trying to take the photo in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic.

From Barton Creek Square Mall

From IH 35

From the dog park at Norwood Estate

From parking lot at Joe's Crab Shack

Lady Bird Lake Boardwalk under construction

From Grove Blvd

Riverside Drive east of IH35

New mixed-use under construction

Lady Bird Lake near Lakeshore Drive

Lady Bird Lake Boardwalk under construction

From stairwell at Spaces 2525 - Bluebonnet & S. Lamar

Capitol from Enfield Rd

From TMI Castle

OK, so I've always longed to go out on that old foundation beneath the TMI Castle where the condos were supposed to have built, but never had before. But there was a hole in the chain link fence and I could see several people down there, so I finally got up my courage and went. Most of the other people there were on all different levels painting. I guess they must have been with the Baylor Art Wall or whatever it's called. There were a few people, though, who were obviously just spectators.

I was really hoping I could stay until night fell, but about that time two police officers showed up. They said the owner didn't really like people out there (unless they were with the Hope Foundation) and said we'd have to leave. (I'm not sure if the people painting were with the Hope Foundation or not, but the spectators had to go.) The cops were pretty cool about it, though. They were almost apologetic about asking us to leave, but said a few people in the past had ruined it for everyone. It was all very low-key and friendly. And at least I got to go out there once, so I was happy.

From the stairwell of a nearby condo on W. 12th

This building is the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center where I had jury duty in April

From the scenic overlook on Loop 360

Loop 360/Pennybacker Bridge

From Shepherd Mountain

From Mount Bonnell

Thanks for looking. (And please send us some cooler weather and some rain.)

That is such a cool angle of the skyline. Almost every major building is spread out enough that you can see it, but without making the skyline sprawling looking. And you can even see the hills. And I love how the UT Tower stands out like the Empire State Building there. I remember when I was a kid I used to think the UT Tower was the Empire State Building. I was probably 5 years old or so.

This will be a really interesting view to see in a few years. So many new buildings will be visible from this spot. Colorado Tower, the Marriott, The Bowie, 7th & Rio Grande and IBC Bank Plaza. And then there's the towers at Green, the Seaholm apartment tower, Shoal Creek Walk, and the civil courthouse. Those last ones area really going to do a lot to fill in the gaps between the main pack to the east and 360, the Monarch and Spring in the west end.

The OP did an incredible job. Those views from Shepherd Mtn. are great. I take visitors up there and they can't believe it. A lot of visitors stay along I-35and have no idea that west Austin is so beautiful.

Great photos; thanks for sharing! I just got back from my first ever visit to Austin, and obviously it was ridiculously hot and hard to do tons of good walking, so this helps fill in some of what I missed by trying to stay cool!

And thanks for the bit about those walls with all the graffiti. My friend and I walked around the top of them (too tired from afternoon heat and afternoon beers to climb down to other levels) and saw plenty of people painting as you did, but didn't really know what exactly they were.

Great photos; thanks for sharing! I just got back from my first ever visit to Austin, and obviously it was ridiculously hot and hard to do tons of good walking, so this helps fill in some of what I missed by trying to stay cool!

And thanks for the bit about those walls with all the graffiti. My friend and I walked around the top of them (too tired from afternoon heat and afternoon beers to climb down to other levels) and saw plenty of people painting as you did, but didn't really know what exactly they were.

Hope you can come back between October and April sometime. It's a great place to be then, but definitely not during the summer.

One thing that I believe throws people off is when is that many pics are taken from the waterfront angle. This makes it look like the skyline is mainly condos when that isn't true. Austin will continue to see mostly condo/apt development along the lake, but the majority of commercial buildings are closer to the Capital. You get a better sense of that with the south or east facing pictures.